Teachers Talking Teaching

John Catterson (@jfcatto) and Pete Whiting (@mr_van_w) are two Australian Flipped Educators. Together they talk education, pedagogy and current practice.
Find more of Pete and John:
Website - www.catfisheducation.com
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/MrCattersonScience
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/PWhiting

John (@jfcatto) looks at the difference between good PBL and sending kids off to look stuff up on the internet. Pete (@mr_van_w) how teaching metacognition can help students learn and then goes on an unrelated rant.

Pete (@mr_van_w) get disappointed about the racist backlash after the HSC English exam. John (@jfcatto) asks us to look beyond the bare necessaties for 1:1 tech in the classroom. Pete then recounts a positive twitter chat he had about GBL and Gamification. Finally, he warns against teacher nostalgia idolising the students of past.

This week, Pete (@mr_van_w) talks about a Sydney school who has found that teaching philosophy increases primary students ability to verbalise higher order thinking. (Correction: Malabar is actually only "Shire-adjacent" #NotMyShire)

John (@jfcatto) brings in a meta-study of the relationship between seating arrangements and "on task" activity and links to how we can use these seating arrangements to inform practice in the classroom.

Pete (@mr_van_w) ponders the NSW government plan to put business professionals in charges of the business of running a school. Taking the load off school principals and allowing them to do what they do best, educational leadership.

Pre-service teacher and listener Sean (@readingpixels) sent us an email asking a few really good questions. Pete (@mr_van_w) and John (@jfcatto) thought would get in friend-of-the-show Matt (@smedboule) to discuss.

Pete (@mr_van_w) asks the question "Who is responsible for students success/failure?" and the problem of competition being of detriment to collaboration. Teachers now also feel social pressure for their students to perform.

John continues to draw from the work of @cultofpedagogy and explores some different ways to engage all students in meaningful class discussions.

John (@jfcatto) and Pete (@mr_van_w) decided last week that they wanted the podcast to be less about parochial political issues, to allow them to focus on classroom pedagogy and be more globally relevant. This week they throw this out the window when John discusses their local members plan to introduce shooting as an "elective" in schools and Pete counters by discussing the state governments minimum graduation standards and the idea of introducing selective primary schools. So much for strategic direction.

Pete (@mr_van_w) has a look at the relatively new concept of tutoring companies helping 4-year-olds to "Prep-for-prep" in Queensland. While John (@jfcatto) discusses the need to teach students how to regulate their distraction by tech in the classroom.

Pete:

Prepping for Prep - should children play or study to get set for prep year - Tony Moore

In an uplifting episode of the podcast, John (@jfcatto) talks about some of the traits that can be found in the "best" and "worst" teachers. Pete (@mr_van_w) talks briefly about ways in which to get students to think in the classroom.

Articles:

John: The 'Best' and 'Worst' Teachers, According to Reddit - Brenda Iasevoli

Pete (@mr_van_w) highlights the lack of flexibility and possible victim blaming of school uniforms. John (@jfcatto) worries that exam stress may be completely unnecessary and pose little benefit to teaching and learning at a whole. Then Pete leaves everyone on a downer with a new study showing the worryingly high rate of teacher suicide.

Pete (@mr_van_w) calmly deals with the downfall and reinstating of Healthy Harold before asking; what are we expected to teach at school? John (@jfcatto) then replaces the outdated concept of digital natives with three further tech subsets of modern students.

Pete (@mr_van_w) is back and unsurprisingly primed for a rant despite feinting to the contrary. He then espouses the benefits of corporate-speak in the classroom. John (@jfcatto) discusses the complicated issue of specialty teachers in primary education.

In an episode discussing the dangers of taking absolute and polar opinion; Pete (@mr_van_w) talks about the Michaela School and the torrents of vitriol that are directed at the school and more importantly the staff. John (@jfcatto) presents a point of view that he surprisingly doesn't agree with.